Fear Thy Neighbor (8)
She hurried to the office, making sure to lock the door. As she said to the girl, you never knew what kind of crazies were out there in the world. Not exactly her words, but close enough. She went to the kitchen, found a bottle of aspirin and a thermometer. She searched the bathroom medicine cabinet for a vapor cream in case the girl had a cold. Betty remembered when she was a little girl, her mother would rub the smelly stuff on her chest and lay a warm towel on her. It never failed to help. Back in the kitchen, she took a paper bag, stuffed the items inside, then returned to room number two.
Chapter Two
Alison opened her eyes to unfamiliar surroundings. Rolling onto her side, she saw the clock on the bedside table. It was almost noon.
“What the heck?” she said out loud. It took her a few moments to remember where she was. In a motel, from the looks of it, though she couldn’t recall the name. As she sat up in bed, the room whirled around like a roller coaster. She closed her eyes when a sudden wave of nausea sent her bolting out of the bed to the bathroom, where she emptied the contents of her stomach.
Alison raked a shaky hand through her hair, her memory of the previous evening sketchy. She stood up, the bathroom mirror giving the impression of one of those fun house mirrors she’d seen years ago when she’d gone to a circus. Couldn’t remember what city, but she remembered that it’d made her sick as she struggled to find an exit. That’s what she felt like now. Turning on the shower, she stepped inside, letting the cool water slide down her back. She tilted her head; the icy blast of water felt good on her face. When she felt steady enough, she opened her eyes, the room no longer out of focus. With extra care, she toweled off. Alison felt like she had the hangover from hell. Every heartbeat sent a searing pain behind her eyes. She had a sour taste in her mouth and brushed her teeth twice. She needed caffeine, but the thought of drinking coffee made her gag.
Dragging herself back to the bed, she saw a bottle of aspirin, a thermometer, and a container of vapor rub. Clueless as to how they got there, Alison forced herself to recall the day before. The pillow where she’d let the cats sleep was gone, along with the cats and the supplies.
Trying her best to recall the previous evening, she remembered stopping in Fort Charlotte, where she’d found this motel, though she still couldn’t bring up the name. She’d unpacked; the only reason she knew this was that her toiletries were on the bathroom counter, yet she didn’t remember putting them there. Had she gone out? Yes, she’d bought stuff for the cats. With no way of knowing exactly what had happened to her, she closed her eyes, tried to relax. She dozed off for a bit, then opened her eyes, only this time without the dizziness.
Glancing at the clock again, she saw it was after one. Edging to the end of the bed, she saw her shoes on the floor. Her luggage was open, her clothing hung over the sides. Alison always packed the few clothes she owned very neatly. Why were they scattered about now? She rifled through the messy pile, finding underclothes, her favorite pair of jeans, and a Tampa Bay Buccaneers T-shirt she’d found in a consignment shop when she’d first moved to Tampa. After she dressed, she repacked her clothes. In the bathroom, she gathered her toiletries, plus the extras provided by the motel. Picking up the shorts and T-shirt she’d worn, she scanned the room to see if she was forgetting anything, She recalled eating a hamburger last night. A hazy memory surfaced of driving to that island, Palm something-or-other; then she spied the pamphlets on the bedside table.
The motel lady, Betty—they’d drunk tea in her residence in the motel. In bits and pieces, she summoned up minute details from her visit. They drank hot tea and ate peanut butter cookies. Try as she might, Alison didn’t have a clear memory of the rest of the evening. She zipped her luggage shut, spotted her purse on a hanger in the tiny closet. Now she knew something was off, as she never put her purse in a closet; plus, she didn’t remember doing this. She always kept it next to her, wherever she slept. She gave one more glance around the room, but she didn’t find anything else. Not much of a drinker, she was positive she hadn’t consumed any alcohol. She decided she had a sugar hangover, because she’d had too many of those cookies that were so sweet. The thought of them now made her nauseous.
Ready to get the hell out, Alison opened her purse to get the keys to her Jeep. Feeling around, she couldn’t find them, so she dumped the contents out on the bed. No keys.
“Shit,” she said to herself. Had she locked them inside the Jeep? If so, she didn’t have an extra set, and no room key in sight. Without insurance that covered this type of screwup, if she needed a locksmith, she was up a creek without the damn paddle. She propped her luggage against the door to keep it open.
It was hot and humid, so she used her hand as a visor to keep the sun out of her eyes. She tried opening the car door; it was locked. Peering in the window, she saw the ignition. No keys there, either.
Returning to the room, she ripped the sheets off the bed, lifted up the mattress, looked beneath the bed. No keys. A small drawer in the nightstand was empty. Not even a copy of the Bible placed there by the Gideons.
She had no other option but to return to the office to see if she’d left them in Betty’s residence. She took her luggage with her, afraid to leave it by the Jeep.
Alison found the office door locked with a note that read, “BE BACK SOON.” She wondered what “soon” meant to an old lady. It was possible she’d stepped out for groceries, though she didn’t recall seeing a car parked in the area next to the office. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the parking area was exclusively for whoever worked in the office. Maybe she’d had a family emergency—but hadn’t she told her she didn’t have company very often? Slowly, the events of the previous evening were coming back to her. And where were her cats? She planned to keep all of them. It might be difficult to drive with them, but she’d buy them a large bed and put it in the back of the Jeep, along with the other items she had a fuzzy memory of purchasing.